By the Sea is bombing at the box-office. Angelina Jolie‘s third directorial effort wasn’t as expensive to make as Unbroken, but it’s still a considerable loss of around $40 million for Universal. After its financial failure, it sounds like the studio wants to bring the actress and director back to more audience-friendly fare.

Read more about Universal’s hope for Angelina Jolie For The Bride of Frankenstein and Wanted 2 after the jump.

Which actress seems very excited to possibly play Captain Marvel? Why didn’t Batman v Superman film in Morocco? Is Frank Grillo already preparing for Captain America: Civil War? Did Constantine stop production? Could we still see Wanted 2? Will Nebula have a bigger part in Guardians of the Galaxy 2? Want to see the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer sueded? Read about all this and more in today’s Superhero Bits. Read More »

Universal’s been taking their good sweet time on the sequel to 2008’s Wanted, but fans needn’t fret just yet. The studio (re)hired Derek Haas and Michael Brandt to write the script last year, and the former now says they’re readying the second draft.

As for big changes from the last film, Haas reveals the unsurprising news that Angelina Jolie will not reprise her role as Fox. Instead, Wesley (James McAvoy) will be hanging out with a new female pal. Read more after the jump.

Let’s do a little update on Mark Millar movies. First up, while we were doubtful for months about the chances of Kick-Ass 2 actually shooting and bringing the cast of the original film back together, turns out we were too pessimistic. Looks like the film will in fact go before cameras this year, with Jeff Wadlow directing and most of the original cast returning.

After the break, Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson provides a little update on the film. Then Timur Bekmambetov has a couple things to say about the sequel to Wanted, another film based on a Mark Millar comic. Read More »

The idea of a sequel to the 2008 film Wanted, based on Mark Millar’s comic series, has been floating around since before the first film even opened. Back in ’08 Wanted screenwriters Derek Haas and Michael Brandt (who shared screen credit with Chris Morgan) were supposedly hired to script the sequel, but the fact of the theoretical film has never been very certain. Evan Spiliotopoulos, co-writer of Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, was later hired to write a draft. As the producers tried and failed to persuade Angelina Jolie to return for a sequel (a difficult task, given how she ended up in the first film) it looked like Wanted 2might not happen.

The last time we heard from original director Timur Bekmambetov, he said discussions with Universal were ongoing with respect to the sequel, but the schedule of lead actor James McAvoy was problematic, as was the degree of control Universal wanted over the film. Now Derek Haas says he and Brandt have been hired to script the sequel once more. And with that news, Wanted creator Mark Millar is taking the opportunity to tease more movie developments. Read More »

Producer Jim Lemley spoke at the University of Idaho on Monday, to students in the College of Business as part of the 2011 Spring Executive Speaker Series. Lemley is alumni, a 1988 marketing graduate. /Film reader Dustin sent in a report from Lemley’s presentation (I have confirmed his appearance with the college), where the producer revealed some details about his current project, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and talked about the possibility of Wanted 2. You can read Dustin’s report after the jump.

We’ve wondered for quite some time what film Timur Bekmambetov might direct next. At one point, it seemed like he would follow his last movie, Wanted, with a direct sequel. But that is taking time to come together, and recently his prioritites have shifted to adapting the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which he is also producing with Tim Burton. Now the director confirms that as his next effort, while offering updates on quite a few other projects to which he’s been linked. Read More »

Small updates on a few films have hit the ‘net over the past couple days, in part due to junket appearances by various actors. Sam Worthington, while promoting his new comics and film endeavor, talked about Clash of the Titans 2. Kevin Smith addressed Red State and the possible rating for Hit Somebody, and Angelina Jolie explained her disinterest in Wanted 2.

With respect to the latter, Jolie’s comments are spoilerish for the first film. I assume anyone reading about Wanted 2 has either seen the first or doesn’t care about knowing what happens, but now you’ve been warned. Read More »

Not so long ago we learned that Angelina Jolie left Wanted 2 to peruse other projects, basically dumping the movie in development heck. Now E! Online is reporting that director Timur Bekmambetov has met at least once with Twilight star Kristen Stewart to replace Jolie in the comic book sequel. According to the report, Stewart would star alongside James McAvoy, and play “a young, ass-kicking assassin in the Fraternity.”